Report: Barbed wire fences deadly to sage grouse

CHEYENNE, Wyo. 
An ongoing study found that collisions with a relatively short section of barbed-wire fence killed dozens of sage grouse over a seven-month period, research that could affect a decision on whether to protect the bird under the Endangered Species Act.

In the results released last week, researchers with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department documented 146 instances of finding sage grouse feathers and/or carcasses on or near a 4.7-mile section of barbed-wire fence near Farson in western Wyoming.

Placing colored tags on the fence to make the wire more visible seemed to reduce the number of birds killed by about 60 percent, the study also found.

However, the research suggests that quite a few sage grouse are dying as a result of colliding with the thousands of miles of barbed-wire fence crisscrossing the West, biologists said.

"It's probably indicative of other fences that we're just not watching," Pat Deibert, lead U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist for the sage grouse listing decision, said Tuesday.

The service has until the end of February to decide whether to protect sage grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act. The deadline emerged from a lawsuit filed by environmentalists to try to get sage grouse listed.

Deibert said the state's two-page report was "good" and that it would be considered in the decision-making process.

Sage grouse are found in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming, as well as in Canada. Disappearance of sagebrush habitat is one reason why the birds are believed to have declined between 55 and 90 percent from their historic numbers.

The researchers gathered their collision figures in 2007 between April and November. Subsequent research looked at whether colored tags helped sage grouse avoid flying into the fence.

"Our data suggests that they are effective," said Tom Christiansen, sage grouse program coordinator for the Game and Fish Department. "What we're working on now is, OK, what's the best design, how many markers need to be on the fence, what's the best reflective tape that needs to be on them?"

He said the department plans to distribute thousands of markers to Wyoming ranchers next year.

The state is experimenting with one tag design made from vinyl siding material and affixed with reflective tape, which was developed by an entrepreneur in Grantsville, Utah. Sunlight reflects off the tape in the ultraviolet range and appears very bright to birds, said Timothy Chervick, owner of FireFly Diverters LLC.

"I took all the research – there's a lot of research on avian vision – and I put it all together," he said.

State researchers found sage grouse carcasses in about 40 percent of the 146 cases where they found evidence of fence collisions, Christiansen said. The fence location in prime sage grouse habitat – just two miles from a lek, or sage grouse breeding ground – might have contributed to the number of collisions, he added.

He also said it's likely that more birds flew off and died or were killed elsewhere without leaving any sign they had struck the fence.

"We know we are just seeing the bare minimum of what's actually happening," he said.

The scope of the problem calls the fence-tagging strategy into question, said Jonathan Ratner, with the Hailey, Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project. The group is suing Fish and Wildlife to get sage grouse listed.

"The chances of these little reflectors being placed every six feet over the tens of thousands of miles of fence that occur within sage grouse habitat in Wyoming is nonexistent," Ratner said.